The Academy Apologizes To ‘No Other Land’s Co-Director Hamdan Ballal

Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director for No Other Land who recently won the 2025 Oscar for best documentary, was recently assaulted and arrested in Susiya. The Academy has since sent out a statement apologizing for not publicly supporting Ballal following this incident.

Yuval Abraham, who is one of the four other directors behind No Other Land, recently posted on X how a group of settlers assaulted Ballal and were all later detained by the Israeli military. The post also said how Ballal was released the next day following his attack but suffered head and stomach injuries.

Academy members, Bill Kramer and Janet Yang have been criticized by hundreds of Oscar voters and documentary branch members for their lack of support. Last Friday, Kramer and Yang sent this to the Academy,

“On Wednesday, we sent a letter in response to reports of violence against Oscar winner, Hamdan Ballal, co-director of No Other Land, connected to his artistic expression. We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and his film by name. We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all the artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the Academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world. We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”